"For everything there is a season..." There are seasons in our lives that can only be viewed from the lens of retirement.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Moving on up: Friday Five

Sally who works in the UK has offered a disturbing Friday Five. Since I have just started a new parish just a couple of years ago, the thought of moving is abhorrent. But because I am basically a complaint person, I will answer her 5 this Friday.

The theme of change is dominating my thinking at the moment, this morning my husband Tim has headed off for an interview in Sheffield. The West Sheffield Methodist Circuit are looking for an Evangelism/ Mission Enabler, in may ways this would be Tim's ideal job, but we wait on God... ( if you can spare a prayer today we'd be grateful)

...Sheffield is a commutable distance from my new post as Minister in Sherburn-in Elmet and some of the surrounding villages, before Tim gets home I will have left to join the Leadership team there for an away day on Saturday, I'll be staying the night with the current Minister in Sherburn to talk over some of the practicalities of the post.

ALL IS CHANGE.... and although I am looking forward to it, it is not without a sense of trepidation, as change always brings challenges.

Changing location also means packing, so next month will be a month of clearing and sorting, deciding what comes and what gets left behind...

So with change in mind I offer you this Friday five; ( if you've never moved here's a chance to use your imagination)

1. A big move is looming, name one thing that you could not possibly part with, it must be packed ?

The library. I have been carrying around tons (literally) of books for years. I believe that my library breeds in that quiet little room. They just seem to multiply. The past move, we had to pay for ourselves. Now we will not be able to afford to move our books anymore. I can’t believe how important my books are to me. I feel like Linus without his blanket if forced to be without my books.

2. Name one thing that you would gladly leave behind...

Books. This next move will be into retirement. I won’t need all those books anymore. Most of what I want to know I can find on the internet anymore.

3. How do you prepare for a move?

Sort books.a. practically? I would like to have a big garage sale, but our apartment has no easement so we have no place to hold a garage sale.

b. spiritually/ emotionally?

I hate moving with a passion. J doesn’t seem to mind it as much. I generally go to the new place and prepare for moving van arrival and J lets the moving van guys do the rest. One time I took a 10 day workshop between cures. That was a good move.

4. What is the first thing you look for in a new place?

Places to shop and places to eat. Then doctors and dentist, pharmacy. Church members are good sources for that.5. Do you settle in easily, or does it take time for you to find your feet in a new location?

When you are moved to a new location by the parish, there isn’t much time to settle in. Usually the congregation wants you to start the first Sunday you are available. I don’t know what I will do when I retire.

The bonus for today; a new opportunity has come up for you to spend 5 years in a new area, where would you go and why?

Of course you mean that this is an all-expense paid type of move, don’t you? I would like to move into a small town in a diocese where the ministry is needed and support a struggling parish but somewhere where I can also relax a bit. Part of me would like to go back to Latin America, but I don’t think I have the energy that living in a foreign country would entail. I think my next stop is retirement with responsibility for a small pt. time cure.

No comments:

Loud Sounding Wisdom

There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.(Madeleine L'Engle)

"Do we really want a gracious God?Certainly we do -- for ourselves;but can we have a gracious Godif we don't believe that the same graceis given to those sinners outside our church doors,outside our faith, outside our boundaries of acceptability?" Pr. Brian Stroffregen

Blogger's Prayer

"Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord."Book of Common Prayer

RevGalBlogPals

About Me

I am an unabashedly liberal Episcopal priest from a time when being a liberal was a "good" thing. If I am knee-jerk about anything it is about seeing that justice is done by those of us who call ourselves Christians or who are about serving Christ in the Church.